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Thx, Mike. As u know, I like to research/wander/wonder, ask pesky questions and try to figure things out 4 myself. 99% of the time, I’ve found that FSDT principles, applied intelligently and creatively, works best. In this case, I was trying to figure out why the pros use this. I figured it had a lot to do w/turning out ‘trained’ dogs asap, but was wondering if there were any practical uses w/in the FSDT context. And I liked the do-it-yourself aspect of the vid. P.S. I’ve become obsessed w/scenting/tracking/trailing lately. The snowstorm has enabled me to keep Honey for several days and work on the basics, as per the FSDT vid. Main thing I did differently is use small boxes instead of plastic gallon jugs, because I don’t have ’em. I also fooled with placing scent objects and dummies in empty, scrunched in toilet paper roller, in order to encourage Honey to press snout INTO scent object in order to help build interval. I think it made it easier for her to indicate. She’s both food obsessed and skittish/submissive and I thought the plastic bottles w/tip sticking out were discouraging her from keeping nose on target and encouraging her to keep looking up at me for treats, as soon as she heard ‘Good Girl.’ (That’s part of the reason I watched the Build Your Own Vid, but it seemed impractical for my purposes, so infused a small piece of cotton w/clove oil and put it in toilet paper roll.) It seems to work better than scent bottles, but I’m gonna keep experimenting and working on building some serious interval and then duration, esp from a distance in boxes/gallon jugs/etc. …………. I gotta get off my butt and figure out how to use my damned Android so I can take vids. In principle I hate smartphones, but they are so useful for training purposes.
